Toetanchamon

Toetanchamon

Successor	Themis
Formation	1889
Founder	Members of the Hoos family
Type	Debt-collection and private-security organization
Headquarters	The Hague, Netherlands
Leader	Eef Hoos (1980s)
Affiliations	Hoos family
Era	Pre-Vader Era Vader Era Middenvader Era Vriend Era

Toetanchamon is a Dutch debt-collection and private-security organization founded in 1889 by members of the Hoos family. Based in The Hague, it collected debts through intimidation and violence. Its collectors sometimes used explosives against debtors' property. During the 1980s, Eef Hoos became its operational leader, when the organization was implicated in bombings and arson attacks in the Netherlands.

In 1997, Eef founded Themis, which replaced Toetanchamon as the Hoos family's principal organization. Some family members continued operating smaller Toetanchamon services in the Netherlands.

History

Toetanchamon was established by members of the Hoos family in 1889. Its early work consisted of debt recovery and gold collection. It also provided protection services. The organization continued employing family members as debt collectors throughout the twentieth century.

Operations before 1945

Sybranda Hoos joined the Toetanchamon office in The Hague around 1936 or 1937. She initially worked in the office but asked to become a debt collector in 1940. After spending several months accompanying an experienced collector, she began receiving assignments of her own. During one collection attempt that year, a debtor repeatedly refused to pay, and Sybranda destroyed the person's unoccupied house with explosives. Toetanchamon subsequently assigned her debts that other collectors had failed to recover.

In 1941, she attacked another debtor's property by throwing explosive devices through its windows. Police arrested her afterward, but Toetanchamon bribed an official handling the case and intimidated the principal witness. The witness withdrew the statement, and the proceedings collapsed.

A further confrontation occurred at the Haagse Markt on 17 June 1944. Traders who owed Toetanchamon money refused to pay Sybranda, prompting her to drive a truck through their market stalls. Police stopped her while she was attempting to leave and arrested her. She remained in custody until May 1945, when she escaped during the liberation of The Hague. Records concerning her sentence were destroyed during the disorder, and she returned to Toetanchamon within weeks.

Postwar operations

Following the Second World War, Toetanchamon began issuing high-interest loans to people who needed money for rent or food. Borrowers also used the loans to replace household goods and pay for repairs. When payments became overdue, collectors demanded repayment, sometimes threatening borrowers or damaging their property. Sybranda continued collecting these debts and eventually took charge of a district in an industrial part of The Hague. Toetanchamon later sent her to Maasland to manage its local office.

Hendrik Hoos returned to the organization after settling in the Netherlands. He had worked for Toetanchamon before the war and resumed his employment after leaving military service. In The Hague, he maintained the vehicles used by collectors, decided which were available for assignments and supervised repairs. He sometimes accompanied collectors when debtors resisted payment. Beginning in 1956, Hendrik gradually handed his workshop duties to younger workers and stopped attending collections. He left regular operational work in 1958.

Toetanchamon continued employing Sybranda until her imprisonment in 1960. She had been sent to a company that had failed to pay its debt and assaulted the director after confronting him. Employees attempted to intervene, but she attacked them as well, seriously injuring one. Police arrested her at the company, and she received a four-year prison sentence. After her release in 1964, Sybranda began welding at a Hoos-owned factory in Vriendendam. She occasionally assisted Toetanchamon when called upon.

Hendrik also recruited his sons Martin Hoos and Angelo Hoos into Toetanchamon after Martin decided to join at the age of 23. The brothers worked together on debt collections, with Angelo speaking to debtors and deciding how to proceed. Martin used physical intimidation and sometimes assaulted or killed debtors who continued refusing payment. Angelo permitted Martin to use lethal violence, while Hendrik paid little attention to their methods.

Eef Hoos and the 1980s

Eef Hoos took over Toetanchamon's operational leadership during the 1980s and became its public representative. Martin and Angelo continued collecting debts and also served as his bodyguards. The organization remained based in The Hague, where its methods attracted increasing attention from the authorities.

Toetanchamon also employed members of the Hoos family from the United Kingdom. Richard Hoos left Bristol for The Hague on 8 April 1981 after being introduced to relatives working around the organization. He began working as a debt-collection assistant and drove vehicles for collectors. He also worked as a guard. Richard returned to Bristol in September 1984 but continued working for Toetanchamon through contacts in Britain.

Eef recruited his younger sister Eva Hoos into Toetanchamon in 1981. She collected overdue debts that other employees had been unable to recover, frequently assaulting debtors who refused payment. During a collection visit in 1982, Eva attacked a café owner in The Hague over unpaid instalments and overturned furniture in front of customers. Witnesses intervened, and police detained her. A court convicted her of assault in 1983, imposing a fine of 750 Dutch guilders and a suspended one-month prison sentence. She returned to collecting debts for Toetanchamon afterward.

During Eef's leadership, Toetanchamon was implicated in bombings and arson attacks in The Hague. After the Vriendsche Courant published critical reporting about the organization, a car bomb exploded near the newspaper's publisher, Noord Pers. Authorities also rejected a permit application for a security company associated with Toetanchamon. Further attacks were reported afterward, including bombings targeting a police station and a social-services office.

Another dispute concerned Eef's proposal to build a large chemical-diesel factory in the harbour area of Scheveningen. He intended the factory to serve as a tourist attraction and described it as a "fourth wonder of the world". A municipal alderman blocked the proposal. In January 1989, an explosive device was placed beneath the alderman's vehicle, but a mechanical defect prevented it from detonating. The device was discovered when the vehicle underwent routine servicing.

Eef denied involvement in the attacks. He received a 14-year prison sentence in connection with attempted attack offences and was imprisoned from mid-1989 until early 1995.

Replacement by Themis

After Eef's imprisonment, Eva Hoos opened a small Toetanchamon office in Rotterdam in 1990. She collected debts from transport contractors and industrial businesses, continuing to threaten and assault debtors who refused payment.

In 1997, two years after his release from prison, Eef Hoos founded Themis to support prisoners and former prisoners. The new foundation published a magazine called The mis-Take, which was distributed in prisons. The Hoos family adopted Themis as its principal organization, replacing Toetanchamon's position within the family. Themis also continued the family's debt-collection and private-security work.

Eva transferred her Rotterdam office and its outstanding accounts to Themis. Richard Hoos also transferred his British contacts after accepting the new organization on 2 April 1997. He opened an office in St Philip's Marsh, Bristol, on 5 May. Martin and Angelo continued collecting debts under Themis, with Martin additionally working as a bodyguard.

Toetanchamon remained in use for smaller debt-collection operations in the Netherlands. Black, which had been the dominant Hoos family colour before 1995, had been associated with Toetanchamon. The family began adopting white after Eef's release from prison and made it the official identifying colour of Themis in 1997. Black remained in use on older equipment and formal clothing.

See also

• Hoos family
• Themis
• Eef Hoos
• Hendrik Hoos
• Eva Hoos